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Apple's ultra-thin MacBook Air has not seen an upgrade since June, but the MacBook and MacBook Pro models may get speed-bumped before the Air does due to delays in the availability of low-draw versions of the Intel Core i5 processor, according to speculation by the French site Hardmac.

Intel has reportedly had to push back the release date of its low-draw 1.06GHz i5-520UM behind its full-power counterparts. As a result, Apple may not have the chips it needs to release an upgrade for the MacBook Air at the same time it ships MacBook Pros with the full-power Core i5. The website does note, however, that Apple has enjoyed priority access to new processor releases from Intel in the past, and suggests that may occur with the i5-520UM.

Apple will have to delay the update of the MacBook Air by couple of weeks. It is still possible that Intel ships first samples to Apple, in small quantities, at a premium price. It is true that the MacBook Air does not look really sexy anymore when compared to the MacBook Pro 13.3"... maybe not for long.

The MacBook Air can only support processors with about half the power consumption of the regular MacBook line. The i5-520UM - like the 1.06GHz i7-620UM and 1.2GHz i7-640UM - draw 18W of power, even though the chips incorporate integrated graphics processing units right on the main processor die. Despite the low rated clock speeds, the Core i5 and i7 can ramp up to speeds between 1.86GHz and 2.26GHz with Turbo Boost technology and can rival quad-core performance through hyperthreading support.